Greensboro Reporter

After Western North Carolina's Mission Hospital was sold to HCA Healthcare, hospital workers began standing up for their profession and patients, while organizing a union. 

The National Nurses United (NNU) is one of the largest nurses' unions in the U.S., with many of HCA Healthcare's hospitals having such a presence, Carolina Journal reported on Aug. 8. 

NNU was planning a union election at Mission Hospital before the pandemic hit to give "bargaining privileges over benefits and working conditions," while also making sure employees are having their choices taken accounted for. 

But the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the election, which is now moving forward once again. The union election is important for North Carolina because the state has strong right-to-work laws. 

“Perhaps due to the state’s lowly unionization rates, a successful election at Mission could have an outsized regional impact," NNU Southern Regional Director Bradley van Waus told Carolina Journal. "If Mission nurses vote to unionize, they would be joining National Nurses United, the nation’s largest nurses’ union. Doing so would not only elevate the state’s unionization rate but may foreshadow more organizing at regional health care facilities.”    

Nurses are also excited for unionization, the publication reported. They're looking forward to the change and benefits that come with it. 

“Our campaign is an enormous thing for North Carolina and the South,” emergency room nurse Trish Stevenson told Carolina Journal. “This would set an enormous precedent for change, and it could happen nationwide for nurses. Health care is in dire need of a shift away from profit-driven corporations.”